Biography
Ferid Murad (September 14, 1936 – September 4, 2023) was an American physician and pharmacologist , His research demonstrated that nitroglycerin relaxes smooth muscle by releasing nitric oxide into the body. This work led to him sharing the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Ferid Murad was born in Whiting, Indiana , on September 14, 1936. His parents were Henrietta Josephine Bowman of Alton, Illinois , and Xhabir Murat Ejupi, an Albanian immigrant from Gostivar in present-day North Macedonia . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] who subsequently changed his name to John Murad after being processed at Ellis Island in 1913. His mother was from a Baptist family and ran away from home in 1935, aged 17, to marry his father, who was 39 and Muslim . [ 2 ] Murad is the oldest of three boys. Murad and his brothers were raised as Catholics . He was later baptized an Episcopalian while in college. The family owned a small restaurant while Murad was growing up, and he spent his youth working at the family business. [ 2 ] In the eighth grade, he was asked to write an essay of his top three career choices, which he indicated as physician, teacher and pharmacist (in 1948, clinical pharmacology was not yet a discipline in medicine). He was a board-certified physician and internist doing both basic and clinical research with considerable teaching in medicine, pharmacology and clinical pharmacology and with a PhD in pharmacology. Fields: Biochemistry, Pharmacology Education: DePauw University BS Case Western Reserve University MD PhD
About the Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."
Quick Facts
- Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
- Added: 2026-02-07
- Source: Wikipedia
- Established: 1946
- Presented by: Lasker Foundation